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Fall of the Spirits of Darkness
by
Rudolf Steiner. From Behind the Scenes of External Happenings,
1917
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This is a very mysterious matter and can only be
understood by scrutinising what, exactly, it was proposed to prevent, against
what, exactly, these defence measures were taken. Spiritual Science penetrates
here into things deeply connected with the impulses of human life in the present
and in the future and of which it is extremely difficult to speak because they
everywhere run counter to certain naive and even justifiable interests of men.
The matter becomes comprehensible only when we take into consideration the fact
that all these attempts by means of assassinations of which I have spoken up to
now, were amateurishly directed, were not under “expert” guidance. They were
attempts made without thorough knowledge of the occult connections; they were
defence measures born of fear, and they were not under united leadership. They
become intelligible only when we study the plan which they were actually
intended to avert, and which was itself being pursued and staged with much
greater insight. In the nineteenth century, a remarkable Order was still in
existence over in the East: the Order of the “Thugs.” This Order, which
flourished in a certain region of Asia, did not arise out of mere desire - the
desire, I mean, of its members - to gain their ends. The members of this Order
were charged with the task of murdering certain persons named by very secret and
unknown superiors. It was an Order of murderers, so to speak, with the task of
putting certain individuals to death. Evidence of its activity filtered through
from time to time in news announcing the murder of such and such a person. The
murder was committed on the orders of unknown superiors who had charged some
member of this Order of the Thugs to carry it out.
In the places where this was undertaken, the aim was well
understood. By arranging circumstances of the physical plane in such a way that
the establishment of this Order of the Thugs was possible, and then by directing
its activities as required, the plan was to bring about the violent death of
such persons as would be equipped after their death with the faculty for
learning certain secrets. The individuals who managed all this also organised
corresponding conditions here, on the physical plane, to act as “mirrors”
— “mirror events” as they are called in occultism. Such was the intention:
to organise the appropriate “mirror events.” Certain events of this kind —
if only a few — have actually been organised on the physical plane. It is done
in this way: certain suitable personalities are trained to be mediums, put into
a mediumistic condition and by certain machinations the currents from the
spiritual world are directed to the medium. The medium then divulges certain
secrets which can only be disclosed by this means, namely, that in yonder world
a person killed by a deed of violence, turns to account here, on the Earth,
those forces which owing to his violent death can still be made use of; as
souls, they fathom certain secrets and then instill them into the medium. And it
is possible for those interested in such research here, on the Earth, to
investigate what these souls are instilling by such means.
What is investigated in this way is a sort of “premature
spiritual birth” — if I may use this expression. The souls who passed
through the Gate of Death in the normal way and are concerned with such things,
know that they must be preparing themselves now — and they make it plain that
they are engaged in this preparation — in order, later on, when humanity has
sufficiently matured, to bring down many things to the Earth and inject them
into the Earth by rightful means. This, indeed, is an important task devolving
upon a number of human beings now passing through the Gate of Death. Having
attained the requisite maturity for certain secrets at the right time — not
prematurely, as is the case when forces generated by violent deaths are put into
operation — the task of these souls is to use and apply the normal forces. It
is actually the task of these human beings to acquire control of these forces
and then to inspire them into men living on the Earth who are not mediums at all
but who should experience them in the normal, legitimate way — through genuine
Inspiration.
In normal life this would be a matter of waiting. But because,
as the result of occult crime, these things which ought to come much later are
sent as premature spiritual births along the path indicated — because of this,
individuals intending evil to humanity and who in this sense are “black” or
“grey” magicians, capture such secrets for their own ends.
Behind the scenes of outer happenings, such things have been
proceeding during our own decades. The intention was this: to place in the hands
of a certain group of men, firstly, the secret of the control of masses — I
spoke of this to begin with. It is the secret of how to gain extensive control
over those masses who concern themselves little with external affairs, yet
possess spiritual capacities and are especially qualified to assist in the
preparation of the Sixth Post-Atlantean epoch — it is the secret, too, of how
the art of controlling these masses can be placed in the hands of a few
individuals.
That was the one aim. The other is something that will play an
important role in the future: it is a matter of acquiring the secret means
whereby factors connected with processes of disease, with the process of
propagation, may be given a particular turn.
Among a few friends, I have already spoken of these things.
The age of materialism is striving, through the work of certain circles, to
paralyse, to eliminate all spiritual development in mankind, to bring human
beings to a point where simply by temperament and character they reject
everything that is spiritual and regard it as folly.
This trend — and it is already perceptible in some
individuals today — will intensify. People will actually long for the time
when the Spiritual is universally deemed to be insanity, craziness! Attempts
will be made to achieve this end by inoculations; just as viruses have been
discovered as means of protection against illnesses, so certain inoculations
will be used to influence the human body in such a way that it provides no place
for the spiritual proclivities of the soul. Human beings will be immunised
against any predisposition for spiritual ideas ... such, at least, will be the
endeavour. They will try by inoculation to bring it about that even in
childhood, human beings lose the urge towards the spiritual life. This is only
one of the aspects of that more intimate knowledge, relating to the connection
of Nature-processes and Nature-specifics with the human organism, which must
arise during the Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch. These things will certainly find
their way into the life of mankind when the time comes. The only question is
whether success will have attended those previous attempts — by means of such
premature spiritual births as I have mentioned — to put knowledge into the
hands of individuals who will use it for their own ends ... or whether the
knowledge of these things will come in the right way, at the right time, and
thus promote the well-being of humanity.
There was nothing amateurish about the methods of the
organisation designed for promoting these premature spiritual births; with the
help of the Order of murderers known as the Thugs, it worked very
systematically, albeit in a way which horrifies anyone who has the good of
humanity at heart. It worked systematically, not amateurishly, with full
knowledge of the means required.
Because the effort was being made through instruments acquired
prematurely from the spiritual world to place part of mankind in the egotistical
possession of knowledge which, as humanity matures will be acquired in any case
during the Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch ... because this was being striven for,
there arose in other groups of men the uneasiness and anxiety which staged this
“Propaganda by Action” as a counter-blast, so to speak; it was intended to
be a help but, being the child of fear, it was an amateurish attempt, a
provisional attempt made with ineffective means.
These things that proceed behind the scenes of external
happenings, are of deep import. Nor would they be mentioned here if it were not
a necessity and a duty to bring them to the attention of people trained to some
extent in Spiritual Science. It is a necessity for such things to pass into the
consciousness of humanity in the Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch. Only so can the
goal of earthly evolution be attained.
Human beings must embark upon the unpleasant task of
abandoning the mode of thinking which the universities produce in the so-called
educated classes today; a time must come when a number of human beings declare
themselves ready to accept this uncomfortable world-conception which takes its
direction, its concepts, its ideas, from the spiritual world. For men must not,
dare not, linger in the condition of sleep that is so congenial to those
abstract concepts for which the age of materialism strives and then calls
“noble.”
Thinking over what I have thus indicated, you will realise
that a whole number of possibilities exists for making use of currents emanating
from the spiritual world in order to bring evil things to pass on the Earth
during this Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch. There are many, many such possibilities
— today I have told you of one. And the obligation to stress the necessity
that such knowledge should reach the consciousness of a certain number of souls
— this is bound up with the fundamental character of our age. The second half
of the nineteenth century was an extremely important period. I have often
indicated to circles of friends here and there that the year 1841 was a critical
time, a year of decision and crisis. This, of course, is not discovered by
looking merely at the events that happened in the physical world, but only by
studying these events in connection with what was going on in the spiritual
world. The year 1841 was, in truth, the critical year in respect of the onset of
the age of materialism, for at that time a very definite battle began in the
spiritual worlds — a battle waged by certain Spirits, Spirits of Darkness as
we may call them, belonging to the hierarchical rank of the Angeloi. In the
spiritual worlds they fought out this battle until the autumn of 1879. They were
striving for many and definite aims, only one of which shall be mentioned today.
Between the years 1841 and 1879, decision was to be taken as to whether a
certain store of spiritual wisdom could be made sufficiently mature to trickle
gradually down to the Earth from the last third of the nineteenth century
onwards, that is to say, to enter into the souls of men as a stimulus to
spiritual knowledge, to the knowledge described today as that of Spiritual
Science, which has only been possible since that time.
The aim of these Angeloi-Spirits between the years 1841 and
1879 was to prevent what was thus to flow down to the Earth, from coming to
maturity in the spiritual world. But these Spirits of Darkness were defeated in
the war they waged against the Spirits of Light during this period. In the year
1879, on a smaller scale, an event came to pass of the kind that has several
times come to pass in the course of evolution, and has always been pictured
symbolically as the victory of Michael, or St. George, over the Dragon. In the
year 1879, too, the Dragon was overcome in a certain realm. This time the
“Dragon” was the Angeloi-Spirits who were striving for but could not achieve
the aim I have indicated. In 1879, therefore, they were cast out of the
spiritual world into the world of men — and here, in this world, they wander
among humanity. They are present here, sending their forces into men's thoughts,
feelings and impulses of will, egging them on to this undertaking or another.
They have not been able to prevent the onset of the age when the spiritual
knowledge flows down — their defeat in the battle lies precisely in this —
for the spiritual knowledge is here and will unfold increasingly; human beings
will be able to acquire the faculty of seeing into the spiritual world.
But having been cast down to the Earth, these Angeloi-Spirits
are intent upon doing harm with the down-flowing knowledge; they want to guide
it into wrongful channels, to rob it of its power for good and lead it into
paths of evil. In short, having been cast down since the year 1879, their aim is
to achieve here, with the help of men, what they were unable to achieve with the
help of the Spirits in yonder world. Their aim is to bring ruin to that part of
the good plan for world-evolution which consists in causing the knowledge of the
control of masses, the knowledge concerning birth, illness and death, among
other things, to spread among men when the time is ripe. These Spirits of
Darkness want to spread such knowledge too soon, by means of the premature
spiritual births. Among their other objects and activities, these Spirits
operate in the manner I have just indicated.
The only way to combat the influence of these Ahrimanic Beings
is to realise that against certain aims of Ahriman nothing avails except to see
through him, to know that he is there. I have indicated this repeatedly in the
Mystery Plays; think only of the end of the last Play. The Fifth Post-Atlantean
epoch must evolve to the stage where many human beings address the Ahrimanic
Powers and Beings as Faust addresses Mephistopheles: “In thy Nothingness I
hope to find the All.” Men must be resolved to look into that realm where
materialism sees the “Nothingness” and there see ... the spiritual world!
Ahriman-Mephistopheles is then obliged to speak to such men as he speaks to
Faust when sending him to the “Mothers”:
“I will not grudge my praise before thou goest, For well I
see that thou the Devil knowest.”
The other day, I said, jokingly, in Dornach: “Mephistopheles
would not have made such a remark to Woodrow Wilson! To Woodrow Wilson he would
have said: ‘The little fellows never notice the Devil, even when he has them
by the collar!’” Truly, it is of the greatest importance that men shall
learn to see into the realities of the spiritual world. And, believe me, it is
simply the fact, that when, on the one side, there is some special necessity,
the opposing forces are also especially strong — and so, today, men put up
strong resistance to these things, struggle against them.
I beg you here in Zurich, in your laudable and welcome efforts
to bring Spiritual Science to certain still very hostile circles, to be under no
illusions! Many disappointments — and at first, nothing but disappointments
— await all efforts to direct things that must come to pass, into the right
paths. This, of course, should never deter us. We must be so imbued with the
impulse needed for the present age, that we do what has to be done without
regard to results — whether they fall out one way or the other.
This attitude alone makes achievement possible - and then it
is often reached by an entirely unexpected route. I beg you to remember, too,
that a great deal must often be done that yields no gratifying results. For the
propaganda of Spiritual Science is a different matter from other current forms
of propaganda. In these other domains, people are for the most part told things
with which they are as familiar as devout ladies sitting in church are familiar
with what the clergyman says from the pulpit. The programmes of most leagues and
societies contain subject matter that can be imbibed very light-heartedly and
superficially — it usually is, and remains, pure abstraction. Fine programmes
are made — but these programmes are unrelated to and incapable of penetrating
into reality. If it is our desire to cultivate spiritual strivings in this Fifth
Post-Atlantean epoch, we must regard them as we regard the Living. What is the
nature of the Living? The Living, the Life, in the realm of Spirit has its image
in the realm of the Living in Nature. I ask you: is a fish in the sea afraid of
laying a number of eggs that come to nothing? Ask yourselves how many of the
eggs that are actually laid, turn into fish? How many come to nothing? As it is
in life, so, too, it is in the spiritual life. You may speak for long years, on
countless occasions, to vast numbers of people ... and you must be satisfied if
interest, at most, is awakened in a few among them — for that inheres in the
nature of the Living. Achievement in any degree is only possible when one
proceeds as Nature proceeds — Nature being the image of the Spirit. What would
happen if Nature hesitated to allow living beings to lay the eggs that come to
nothing, because a number obviously perish in the course of a year? The
Nature-process continues and, moreover, achieves evolution. Considerations as to
whether any particular thing can be achieved, whether it is in line with this or
with that — are of no moment. What is of moment is that in the thing itself we
see the impulse and that we simply cannot do otherwise than carry this impulse
into the world.
And looking at the reasons — a few of which have been
indicated today — why this impulse must be carried out into the world during
the Fifth Post- Atlantean epoch ... truly they are serious enough! Where
necessity is greatest, remember, there the opposition is strongest. Men will
have to learn to view all these things that come to pass here, on the physical
plane, and in our time present a truly terrible aspect, in their connection with
happenings behind the scenes. Only then do they become intelligible. But the
historians, the sociologists, the economists, the politicians of today, who
derive their rules and laws exclusively from the physical plane well, as far as
the actual necessities are concerned, they act like persons who begin some
important task by stretching themselves on a chaise lounge and going to sleep,
believing they can achieve it in the world of dream. The majority of those who
belong to the world of culture, to the several branches of science today, really
do set to work like this; in their state of dream they let reality pass them by.
How do men write treatises on history, on sociology? They write without a single
inkling of the real forces at play behind the subject of their dreamings. The
realities underlying such deeply decisive events as we are witnessing nowadays,
lie around modern men of science like the walls of a room into which they have
been carried during sleep, have never seen and in which they go on sleeping.
This is how materialistic science acquaints itself with the world.
In my book Vom Alenschenratsel (The Riddle of Alan) I have
described a mode of consciousness that is at the same time a “seeing” (Schauendes
Bewusstsein). This must, to a certain degree, become a faculty in humanity of
the Fifth Post-Atlantean epoch for the following reason. Certain secrets must
come into the open because otherwise they would be spread among humanity by
unlawful means such as those of which I have told you today. As I said, it is
not easy to speak of these things, but in duty bound it is necessary to do so.
Men must acquire for many things a gift of observation very different from the
clumsy faculty of observation in vogue today.
In connection with what has been said, I want to add the
following. Firstly, men can acquire something, even today, by trying to take
things normally ascribed to chance seriously and regard them as hints for
deepening the life of soul. Suppose you read that at one place or another, on
this or that date, a certain man died. A great deal may light up if one asks
oneself: “How would it have been if that man had died three months earlier or
three months later?” reckoning, of course, merely with possibilities. But you
may be sure that if such a question is put, forces are released whereby you will
discern other things. Or again, while traveling in a train you may have a
conversation that means a great deal to you. A materialist, naturally, would
regard such a thing as a lucky stroke of chance. But those who are trying to
penetrate behind the scenes of outer existence will be alert to such incidents;
without forcing ideas too far but feeling that there is something in these
“accidents”, they pay attention, because these things point to forces
playing into and between the events — forces whose origin is neither
mechanical nor mathematical. That is one of the things I wanted to say.
The other is this, and I want to reiterate it with emphasis.
In spite of the materialism of our time, much that is spiritual is revealing
itself to men. But it goes against the grain to speak about these spiritual
experiences. When someone becomes communicative, because he trusts you, he will
often speak of what he, or some other person, has done ... If he tells you
honestly and genuinely why, for example, he founded some newspaper, why he did
this or that, he relates a dream, or what seemed to be a dream; he tells you of
an impulse from the spiritual world. Such things happen at every turn nowadays
— far more often than people think. Far more deeds are prompted by spiritual
impulses than is usually imagined. But people hesitate to admit such things
because they are as a rule not taken seriously.
It is well to deepen contemplation in both these directions,
to be alert, in these days, to any sign or experience which strikes one's
attention; and also to observe — for the opportunities are there — how in
the good and in the bad sense, things are revealed from the spiritual world,
which impel men to act. Nowadays, above all, this is more often the case than
people think.
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